Some Thoughts and Suggestions on Assessing Student Learning

Pressure to assess student learning more carefully and systematically
is clearly mounting. Federal and state agencies are increasingly calling
for solid, compelling evidence of student learning, while higher education
leaders are challenging faculty to improve the quality of curricula and
pedagogies. Efforts to assess student learning thus serve two ends: one,
to demonstrate the worth of our programs to external constituents and,
two, to inform our understanding of the effectiveness of our teaching
strategies.